Customer Reviews

Tarot Shadow Work: Using the Dark Symbols to Heal

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I think I was expecting something else when I picked up this book. There are just so many ways of working with shadow energy. But I am not at all disappointed (even though my copy apparently had a few printing errors, fuzzy pages, etc.) This book fills a little gap in my Tarot library.

Author Jette provides readers with a little-explored area of working with Tarot Cards. It involves using the Tarot to release yourself from the grips of your shadow, be it an addiction, bad habit, an illness, or unresolved feelings or conflicts. The first thing to mention is that Jette only utilizes the 22 Major Arcana cards, noting that they symbolize the spiritual journey, and shadow work itself is a spiritual endeavor.

Jette provides some primer information on the tarot -- background, Jung and the Tarot, the care and use of the cards and setting the proper tone and atmosphere (meditating, grounding, etc) for the readings. She also spends plenty of space discussing the shadow and shadow work, including, for example, how to prepare for shadow work, building a shadow altar and forgiveness as part of the letting go process.

What is truly inspired are the readings you follow along, and do in sequence, as you make your way through the book. They all use a star-patterned spread design. The "Star of Discovery" spread is about uncovering exactly what you need to know about your shadow. The "Star of Recovery" spread examines, in greater detail, one of the cards from the first reading that troubled the reader the most, in order to focus in on what may be in need of healing or coming to terms with. The next spread, "Star of Illumination", reveals the gifts of working with the shadow -- the positive energy you receive through self-acceptance and awareness. It again involves one of the cards from the first spread. The "Star of Hope", the final spread, allows you to plan and visualize a possible future, one of hope.

There are even more exercises, affirmations, meditations, etc. provided for seekers, and an appendix of Major Arcana meanings -- the shadow meaning and the shadow gift interpretation of each card.

The author is an RN, health educator, and theraputic touch practitioner who has 25 years experience in working with and studying the Tarot. This is a wonderful book for those seeking healing and recovery, or for anyone looking for methods of deeper self exploration.

As a sometime explorer of the shadows in my life, I have found this book to be uniquely helpful. One of the interesting things about this book is that the exercises become more and more helpful as you look at them retrospectively. In her simplicity of message, she has reached a depth that is often unmet in other books that deal with these issues. Very inspiring.

In TAROT SHADOW WORK Christine Jette suggests there are many ways to encounter and deal with the shadow side of the psyche. What is the shadow, and why should one care if the shadow knows or thinks it knows? According to the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung and his onetime associate Sigmund Freud, the persona or face we present to the outside world is not the sum of what we are. Even the conscious thoughts we hide from others are not the sum of a psyche. Much of what transpires throughout the course of a lifetime is hidden from consciousness--repressed, projected, denied, or dealt with via other ego defenses designed to shield one from unpleasant truths.

Ever wonder why you form an instant and apparently irrational dislike for someone, or why you scream in rage over the most trivial happening, or why you experience a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you hear a certain song or smell a certain perfume? In a more reflective mood and under the right circumstances you can access the unconscious processes that affect these reactions. "Tarot Shadow Work" is the opposite of analysis-i.e. it is art not science, and as far as I am concerned, the perfect way to approach and use information hiding in the irrational unconscious.

Jung suggested the Tarot deck as a way to tap the unconscious. Each of the 22 cards of the Major Arcana corresponds to an archetype, a universal symbol recognized by the unconscious. For example, the Empress represents fertility, motherhood, nurturance. Each of us reacts to those notions differently. If you were nurtured as a child, the Empress might evoke feelings of warmth and contentment. If you are a harried mother with six kids, you might not have the same reaction to the Empress, no matter how much your mother loved you.

Each archetype has a light (yang) and dark (yin) side. Jette has developed an assortment of techniques and approaches using the Tarot to facilitate contact with the unconscious and the light (higher self) and dark (shadow self) that lie within. Contact with the unconscious allows one to address grief, anger, and loss that generally underlie unsocial behavior and/or obstruct the individual from becoming all he or she can be. The unconscious can reveal hidden talents, desires, and needs.

Jette is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, and much of her text is peppered with information from the Big Book and other 12-step literature as well as the writings of Jung and a variety of new age healers. If you're poised to work a fourth step inventory or using the tenth step on a daily basis, you will find much useful information in TAROT SHADOW WORK.

The full shadow work cycle with this book took a lot of time for me (about a year).
And I have to say it was a great experience.
Though author mentions words like 'Dark Goddess' protection', actually there is almost nothing 'pagan' in her book (IMHO). She repeats again and again: "No ritual is sacred unless it is sacred to you". You can find pagan stuff on the verbal level, but in practice it's all very rational, deeply based on Jungian psychology and common methods of self-helping.
"No magic comes from cards, the magic only comes from you", Jette says.
'Shadow altar', 'circle of protection', any ritual or stuff you can use must only help to concentrate yourself on 'shadow work'.
'Protection' is very important word in this context. "Remember, you are safe, protected and can leave any time", author says. The process is very hard and painful. If you are Christian (as myself, for example) you can ask our Lord or Virgin Mary to protect you. If you don't believe in God (or gods and goddesses) at all you can easy explain 'Dark Goddess' as an archetype, a part of your own psyche knowing wisdom which your Self doesn't know yet. So it can guide and protect you, too.
I have to say this book already changed my life someway.

I bought this book based on the unanimous positive reviews here at Amazon. I'm glad I got a used copy, because what I received is a volume of weak-minded New Age pabulum. I thought it would be interesting to see how the symbols of the tarot might be used for shadow work, but I was expecting--hoping for?--something considerably more rigorous and credible, something with the clarity and common-sense applications of, say, a Robert A. Johnson book. But, unlike Johnson, Jette is not an analyst, and so we get a lot of pseudo-pagan nonsense about casting circles of protection and crystals. I can't take seriously declarations like, "Onyx can cause depression in some..." or "Rose quartz radiates universal love," or "Diamonds hold, absorb, magnify, and transmit pain." Is there really any clinical evidence to prove this, or is the author just passing along the standard gruel that she has read in other Llewellyn publications?

The author's method uses only the trump cards. I guess the standard wisdom is that the major arcana represent archetypes, and the Jungian psychology on which shadow work is predicated also relies on archetypes, but that seems to be as much of a reason that we get for limiting ourselves to 22 of 78 cards. It seems arbitrary an unnecessarily restrictive. After all, the entire deck presents a much wider range of experience than the 22 cards do, and to limit ourselves to the major trumps just because they have been historically referred to as "archetypes" seems silly and illogical. The unconscious--where the Shadow dwells--speaks the language of symbols, and there is no reason whatsoever to assume that it can only respond to the symbols presented in the trump cards.

The author claims to be non-sectarian in her presentation, but that seems to really mean that she is non-religious, at least in the sense of any mainstream religion. But her repeated references to "Crone wisdom" and her exhortation to call upon "Crone power" during shadow work belie that. The rituals she presents use wiccan rhetoric. Here's an example: "I ask that the Dark Goddess...bless and protect me during this rite. I ask for wisdom, guidance, and comfort as I deeply mourn my losses. I release the past and I am free. This is correct and for the good of all. May it harm none. So shall it be." Non-sectarian, my eye.

I don't really have a problem with the use of ritual, or candle-burning, or any of that. I don't think this stuff works in any supernatural or magical way--and there is certainly no credible evidence to suggest they do--but the unconscious does seem responsive to the symbols of ritual, and I think a good argument can be made for making healthy, life-affirming rituals a large part of our lives. But calling on "Crone power"....well, I don't think so.

This book is written by a woman and seems aimed primarily at women, although that might not be obvious on first reading. I don't think it excludes men, but where gender-specific issues are brought up, they tend to be female issues like rape and menopause and domestic abuse. That's fine, I guess, if you're a woman, or a Sensitive New Age guy who responds to the nurturing warm fuzzies this book throws around. I'm not that kind of guy, though, and don't respond to it--that is my own subjective experience, and not a problem with the book, which is free to find any audience it wants. (Readers might object that the crystal-healing nonsense is also free to find its own audience, and in a sense they might be right, but I think it is a completely different thing to pass off crystal-healing mumbo-jumbo as therapy.)

I still think that the symbolism of tarot might be used effectively for shadow work, and that the author's idea was a good one. Jette is sincere in what she offers, and her writing strong. She seems to genuinely care about helping people.

This is definately more than a self-help book. It's more than 2 years that I've rad it and I keep going back to it.

This book far exceeded my expectations. It was in perfect condition, new I would say. Not a mark or crease in or on it. I was very impressed to receive such a perfect item for such a wonderful price. The contents of this book are fascinating and I am thoroughly enjoying it and learning alot. I am very pleased that I ordered this book.

A friend of mine, loved my copy so much he ask that I purchase a copy for him. This book is great for helping to identify our talents, abilities, gifts and challenges.A positive approach to shadow work.